OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-Microsoft Corp. could overtake Symbian Ltd. in mobile-phone operating system market share by 2009, according to research from ABI Research.
The group believes that by 2009, mobile phones with Symbian operating systems could make up less than 50 percent of the overall market, with Microsoft Windows Mobile accounting for the rest. “The problem for Symbian is that they’re only targeting higher-end phones, which form a tiny part of the market,” said ABI analyst Brian Pellegrini.
As for Microsoft, “money is not really an issue for them,” said Pellegrini. “They have even talked about offering free Windows Mobile licenses just to get the product used.”
Still, Microsoft likely will face trouble with application developers and handset vendors because its software is closed-source.
